This year Ascension day falls on May 21st. What really happened on the very first Ascension day?
For 40 days after He rose from the dead, Jesus often appeared to his followers in many places....in Jerusalem, on the road to Emmaus village, by the Sea of Galilee, and elsewhere. All these 'eye-witness' accounts can be found in the Gospels in the New Testament section of the Bible.
Jesus was in his 'resurrection body' so that he could allow himself to be seen or not seen whenever he liked. We read in the accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that he would appear, and then disappear from sight again. He reassured his friends that he was not a ghost, because they could see the marks of the nails which had been driven into his hands and feet and the hole in his side where the soldier's spear had gone in, to make sure he was really dead. Jesus also showed them that he had bones and flesh, and he ate proper food with them, which ghosts or spirits are not able to do.
However, although he was truly himself, there was something different about his 'resurrection body': although he had flesh and bones and was not a ghost, he was also not subject to the usual laws of nature, so he could appear in a locked room, and then disappear, having spoken to his friends in ways that showed that he knew what they were thinking, and what they had been talking about even in his absence.
After 40 days of these appearances, he wanted to show them that this final period of his life on earth was coming to an end. So he told them to meet him on a certain mountain in Israel.
When I was in Israel myself, I went to see this mountain. It was not rocky or craggy, but a very high hill with a large dome-shaped top to it, in the shape of a grassy mound.
When Jesus met them there, he explained that he was about to become fully at one with God,(this meant that he was going back to heaven) and that he would send his Holy Spirit to help them in the future. This would mean that he could always be with them, and with every believer, at all times, in all ages and places.
He told his followers that he wanted them to go into all the world, and tell everyone about him - his life, death and resurrection, his love for them, the way that he had defeated the power of death, and the way that he had opened the Kingdom of heaven to all believers. St Luke records the details, which he gathered from eye-witnesses: Jesus told his followers: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
9After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." (the book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 1, written by Luke).
It is this event that we celebrate every Ascension day. It is always on a Thursday because it is always exactly 40 days after Easter day, the day when the Lord rose from the dead. The church does it this way in order to be faithful to what the Bible tells us, that Jesus was seen by his followers for 40 days after he rose.
It is a day which marks a complete change in the life of the Christian church, and prepares us for the festival of the coming of the Holy Spirit of God, which we will celebrate 10 days later ... on Whit Sunday or, as it is often known, Pentecost.
What does the ascension of Jesus mean to us in our daily lives? It is actually very important. It shows us that Jesus, who had come from God the Father as his Son, was returning to his heavenly Father to prepare a place for us to live with him for ever, if we believe in him. It also shows us that Jesus was divine - he was no longer subject to natural laws, but could come and go at will. His ascension into heaven, although it took him away from his followers physically, meant that he could be with all of us everywhere by sending his holy Spirit to us.
This was why Jesus told us 'I am with you always' and 'I will never leave you.'
This doesn't mean that all our problems are fixed. After all, Jesus himself had to go through a very hard life. What it does mean, and this makes all the difference, is that he is always with us, in whatever happens to us.
That's worth celebrating on Ascension Day!
